It's been SEVEN DAYS since I messaged support and I still have the same problem.
Lee Porter
Member
Ive hit up twitter twice, sent 3 emails. I can not use a wheel that ive spent 350 dollars and 200 on the wheel and I cant go 5 minutes with it cutting out. Ive reseated this thing more than a few times and tried 3 different methods to fix it. No I don't want to hear support will get to me CAUSE THEY HAVENT.
Comments
So how long before I get an actually response from Support or do I have to bug you guys until I get one.
I also sent a message to support on April 8th and nothing so far, here at Fanatec it seems that they don't care about customers, they just want sales.......
I am not optimistic about getting timely response to support especially over this time. Here in Germany it is Easter vacation and a lot of people are taking two weeks off starting from this week. I too have a ticket open since 9th. On the site it says up to 7 days for a response. In the confirmation email it says „as soon as possible“ I assume we are talking about 7 working days? So I am just on day 4. still a lot of customers won’t understand that fanatec as it creeps into the retail sim market cannot support their customers within 24 or 48 hours. I think that is the standard these days and this is what retail customers expect, they will urgently need to develop to be more consumer focused because the mass market won’t wait for problems to be solved, they will just return the goods and buy an alternative.Meanwhile, I am sure we are not the only ones waiting for support to get back to us.
Hi Faizel,
About two months ago our responses were indeed within 48 hours on average. There has since been a higher volume of enquiries, combined with corona cases within the support department, and a backlog has started to build. We are working hard to return to our previous pace.
[Fanatec Community Manager]
I finally got a response, and it was the same thing that I've been asked 7,000 times. At the moment, I have no wheel to use and yeah im going to be pushy when I've spent $550 and its sitting next to my stand as a decoration.
I too reported a problem over a week ago with no response from Fanatec despite their email saying someone will be in contact with 7 days. This is not acceptable to have not even received an acknowledgement from my 2 follow up emails. I have a GT DD Pro that I can't use. Luckily I still have my G29.
If they have so many support tickets that they can't cope they need more people to pick up the slack, but if there are that many tickets what is wrong with the quality of the product??
I'm going to contact the payment processing company and complain about it being a faulty item. Maybe that will get the ball rolling.
I don't think they expected the wave of customers when they went into partnership with Poliphony digital to create the Gran Turismo wheel. Now they are in firefighting mode with all these support tickets but they have to move quickly to secure and maintain new customers as the announcement from the competition about their direct drive is imminent I think. Granted, the problem of the pandemic as well as chip and supply chain etc is a real issue here in Germany but the customer who has spent their hard earned cash only to receive a defective product will not hear this.
Do they have a no questions return policy by the way? That could maybe be a solution where it’s a simple click to return stuff you are not happy with for a full refund instead of back and forth with support tickets etc. this would give them a chance that those customers would come back to consider their products in the future. in the current form bad experience will burn those customers forever. I would strongly recommend to fanatec as a first and urgent step to make an automated returns path. They can still collect data and force customers to fill in the reason for returning the product then they can test and do some homework on defective products without taking the customer on an unpleasant journey of troubleshooting etc.
For now I am choosing to go the support route as I want to give them a chance to rectify. They are a small company with under 200 employees but many like you will not think the same as me as this frustrating experience will kill any other consideration.
For all our sakes I hope our issues can be resolved soon.
If you’ve paid with a credit card I would recommend contacting them for a chargeback. If you’ve got documented contact with Fanatec and being messed about the credit card company will just take the money straight from them. It enough people do this it will kick them into taking customer concerns seriously.
What you say is correct. However chargeback should always be the last resort for the customer at least from fanatec perspective.
I have started the process of claiming my money back since there has been no response from Fanatec.
Will let people know how that goes
Absolutely. And the CC company won’t do a chargeback unless it is a last resort. Fanatec have had their chance to do the right thing
What irks me that there are enough people here that have the same problem and they didn't have a plan for that. This is now week 3 without a working wheel and I get angrier by the day because of the lack of responses I'm getting. Like it was like the support weren't looking at the forums at all and asked me the same thing that everyone in here has asked me. They could saved me another week of waiting before sending in my wheel for them to look at it. So in the end, I could be out 5+ weeks without a wheel. That is very unacceptable regardless.
You’ve got to laugh at The excuse above that they’ve got so many of their products breaking they can’t keep up. Should have ran that one past the higher ups before posting it online
I've finally received a reply from Fanatec support, and theyre going to arrange for the RMA. So just waiting for that.
Will see how long that takes to be sent.
Been waiting for days again, sent pictures in and now no reply at all. wish i had never spent my money over here the worse service i have ever seen with a product.
@fanatec please pay attention to these forums….you need to institute an automated exchange and returns option,especially since it is clear you are not able to keep up with the influx of customer issues on a one to one basis. Allow your customers to generate a return label on an automated Basis for either a replacement/repair or refund directly and immediately without having to go through an RMA process. This is totally out of date with what the customer expects these days plus this would boost the customer experience dramatically. You have people waiting for days and weeks for support basically feeling stranded not only in this post by the way. It’s literally the worst experience for any customer not to know if and when they will be answered or not. In the meantime what I can suggest with the current backlog to to send a mass email to all these stranded customers and offer a refund or repair/exchange otherwise you will have a lot of chargeback cases and usually this is the course of action reserved for companies that have cheated their customers etc intentionally and at this stage the customer is beyond angry. This level of dissatisfaction needs to be avoided at all costs.
I've now received the RMA, and the item will be collected tomorrow; to be repaired at a service centre here in the UK so thats re-assuring that its staying in the UK and not going back to Germany.
My claim via the payment processing is still open, and I'll keep it open until the matter is resolved to my satisfaction
I'll update when things have reached the next steps.
Makes sense Paul, glad that you case moves forward and I hope to the degree of your full satisfaction.
I just got the email that they are supposed to send me a separate email for RMA. This is day 15 by the way. I just want this resolved...
By the way just thought I would try the chat function yesterday for the first time and this is what I got. A hotline with only a two hour window is not a hotline. Go look at the definition of hotline in the dictionary.
Now I’m starting to get worried about this failure in customer support. 15 days is just not acceptable. I’m on day 13 with total silence from fanatec……..Fanatec, how about sending an apology email and being transparent with your customers about the situation. Are you able to support your customers or not?
So am i going to have to pay the $400 US JUST TO SHIP THE WHEEL TO YOU GUYS, @Fanatec?
I might as well pay for a new effing wheel at that point?
I opened a ticket via the form today then called at 2pm (CET) and instantly got an RMA initiated for the issue I'm having.
That chat is useless, no tech support only "customer support" that don't support anything. So don't waste your time trying to get in touch with anyone there. Just try and call them in the window when the phone is open.
Well I too finally got a response from a human agent. It wasn't convenient for me to call within this window and I think for a lot of people this 2 hours window is not enough. Even worse for people that live outside of Germany. Anyway, did you immediately receive a shipping label? Yesterday they informed me they would send one and I am still waiting. This is kind of like a one sided relationship where the customer is doing all the talking and following up etc.
If this is true, I find this absolutely shocking and unacceptable.
Well, nice to know that I'm not alone in having issues. Or maybe not.
I ordered a DD Pro, one of the last available in early April, and already I have a malfunctioning brake pedal. It's constantly on at 1-2%, and slowing me down a lot. I tried looking for customer contact in the site and haven had ANY luck. What a weird company.
What is the best way to contact customer support with any hope of getting a response within... a week or so? I hate to think of any company being so bad about handling customers, especially considering how expensive their stuff is. It's a great wheel - when it works anyhow.
Further update, for those following my case.
After having the bundle collected by a courier yesterday, I get a notification from the same courier that I will receive a parcel from Fanatec UK on Tuesday. I have not had any confirmation on what has happened, whether they've fixed it or simply replace the base unit. Unfortunately, I wont be able to inspect the parcel for a week as I'll be working away.
I had a further request from the payment processor (Paypal) for more info as I returned it as 'not as described' since they dont have an option for a refund due to a faulty item. I also requested that Paypal keep the case open until I'm satisfied with the returned item.
I'll update as I have more info
I haven't gotten a response yet. but quite simply that better not be the case.
Its good to see they are doing something. In my case they dont respond. 2 weeks am i waiting at the moment, not even an answer, the only thing they say in the livechat is patience. Meanwhile i payed almost €1000 for something thats doesnt work after 4weeks.
I can confirm the approach of Felix. I managed to call them today and immediately got an RMA instituted which states I will receive the shipment labels in 24 hours. Those of you still struggling with response call the number listed in my post above.
my wheel is in RMA and they are looking at it. its frustrating with it taking a full month to get here.